


A new world

by imsfire



Series: Cassian week 2018 prompts [7]
Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: Cassian is only a twinkle in their eyes, F/M, Feels, Foreshadowing, and how they came to be married very young and living on Fest, and think they can change the world, backstory fic, headcanon about Cassian's parents, in fact this is what you might call backstory to the backstory, young hopeful people who still believe in political solutions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-29
Updated: 2018-07-29
Packaged: 2019-06-18 03:39:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15476859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imsfire/pseuds/imsfire
Summary: A young couple talk about the future after graduating from university on Alderaan.





	A new world

**Author's Note:**

> For Cassian Appreciation week on tumblr, day seven; free day.  
> Not really sure if it's okay to tag this as Cassian fic as it's entirely about OCs; this is one of my heacanons about his parents.

For much of its length the sunlit bay was busy, with holidaymakers swimming and sunning themselves, paddling the little pleasure-canoes out to the point and back, eating at the bamboo-roofed cantina above the beach.  Further along, where the sands narrowed to a pale strand below outcrops of weathered rock, there were fewer people.  A gentle breeze carried most of the noise of the resort away, and the only sounds were the hum of insects and an occasional bird call, and the lapping of waves against the sand.  The couple sharing a beach towel in the shade of a low-hanging pine had their own little corner of the beach all to themselves.

The young man appeared to be asleep, long legs stretched out and one hand resting below the arch of his ribcage while the other lay relaxed at his side.  He was lean and tanned, and two weeks of steady sun had brought out a chestnut gleam in his dark hair.  The slim dark woman who sat beside him had her arms round her knees, and she watched; sometimes the sea, sometimes him.

The waves and the insects sang in the summer air.

“Are you awake?”

“Mmm.”

She smiled.  Sat for a while longer, thinking, looking at the clear water coming in and receding, tiny wave-crests like strings of crystal beads dancing up the sand and dragging back, leaving a darker shade of ivory in loops and curves along the water’s edge.  Here and there in the golden whiteness there were small pebbles of many colours, and shells smaller than a child’s fingernail.  She had already collected a few earlier, coming back from swimming.  She sorted them through in the palm of her hand and set them down on the sand.  Looked down once again at her companion.

“Do you ever wish you could keep things that can’t be kept?” she asked.

“Hmm?” The young man opened a pair of dark eyes that crinkled at the corners as he smiled up at her. “You mean, like a pet mynock?”

“No, silly.  Like – like time.  Like days.  Like today.”

He tilted his head at her. “You’re feeling sad because it’s the last day of our trip,” he hazarded.

“Yes…  Yes, I am.  But – not just that.  I mean, we’ll never have today again, Jeron, we’ll never be this young again, this free.  Will anything ever be as beautiful as today, this place, being here with you?” She sifted through a handful of sand. “I keep thinking if I can just find the perfect stone from this beach I can capture some of it, somehow, keep it forever, keep some tiny bit of this day.  In case nothing else ever is the same.”

The young man Jeron had been listening with an expression of puzzled affection.  He sat up as she finished and leaned over to kiss her temple. “Dearest one, you’re very philosophical.  Is there anything I can do?”

“Stop time?” she asked, in a voice that was only half teasing.

“Mariana Casal, half of my life and light of my soul, if time could be stopped I would stop it for you.  If mynocks could be tamed I would tame one for you, and keep it as a pet, and call it Fluffy.”

He kissed her again, this time on the mouth.  She leaned into his embrace, snaking a slim brown arm around him, running her free hand into his hair; they sank back onto the towel, pressing together at every available surface, and for a time there was no more talking. 

Eventually they had to come up for air. “You don’t really want a pet mynock, do you?” Mariana murmured.

“No…  But – dear one, forgive me but – I don’t want to stop time, either.  It’s wonderful here and this has been a magical holiday, but I’m excited about the future.  About everything that’s starting now, for you and me.  I’ve got a degree, I’m the first university graduate in my family!  And you got a _First_!  All those professors telling you a woman would never make a mining engineer, but you showed them.”

“We-ell. ” She sat up again, pulling her shoulder straps back quickly. “Don’t forget that now I have to find a job, in a galaxy that still thinks like that, that there are _Girls’ jobs_ and _Boys’ jobs_ and engineering isn’t a _Girls’ job_.  I haven’t really ‘showed them’ until I’m earning a salary.  And you –“ she broke off and turned away suddenly, raking her black hair back and trying to wrestle it into a plait. “You’re going –“ her voice snapped again and she shook her head. It hurt too much.  She was losing him; he was due to leave in less than two weeks.

“It’s only to Fest,” he said quickly.  “Not somewhere right off the outer rim, not some hell-hole that’s barely terraformed.  It’s – not the most comfortable place, I know, but – I couldn’t have gone to university at all without that sponsorship, just like you couldn’t have without that grant from the Women Engineers Foundation of Alderaan.  So now I have to do this.  But it isn’t for good, it’s only for five years.”

“I know.  Just till you’ve completed the debt-contract, I know.”

“Phrikacor paid my fees and living expenses, now I have to keep my side of the bargain.  And then after that I can get a job anywhere.  And – Mariana, look at me – you can, too.  You can go anywhere!  We’ve studied and we’ve succeeded, proved we can do it; we did it!  Got the t-shirt, got the certificate!”

“But Fest, Jeron!  Cold and snow!  Five years of cold, and mines, and more debt-workers in them.  And nothing else except refineries.   Phrikacor have interests on literally a hundred worlds and that’s one of the worst they could send you to.  I just keep thinking it’s a punishment detail.”

“Punishment?  For what?” He was trying to smile still but her distress was distressing to see.  He leaned in and nibbled at her ear. “For dating Professor Mannanna’s sole girl student?”

“For your politics.  Which you know quite well I only escaped getting in trouble for sharing because of Mannanna.  I was protected.  The university’s prestige and all that.” She took his face in her hands for a moment; stared into his eyes, fiery with the energy of her words. “That demo, after the Voting Reform conference was cancelled.  All of us got arrested, I’m the only one who wasn’t charged.  Is that some random coincidence?  I was protected! – and that’s wrong!  And now you have a – a _rap sheet_.  Look at the other students they sponsored - an arse-licker like Tekon Vorlana gets posted here on Alderaan with a comfy desk job, you’re ten times the engineer but you get sent to shovel snow on Fest!  Why would Phrikacor do that if not to _make a point_ to you?”

“It’ll be okay,” Jeron said. “I swear, Mariana, dearest heart, I’ll be fine.  I have been there before; my grandparents were there for thirty years!”

“And left as soon as they retired, no?” But she was beginning to doubt her own fury.  Perhaps she was being over-emotional.  Last day of the holiday, bracing herself to say goodbye; perhaps it was affecting her. “It’s just – it’s such a harsh posting.  For a new graduate.”

“But I _am_ a graduate.  A working class boy whose grandparents were indentured mine workers for three decades, and I’m going back there as a fully qualified civil engineer.”

His pride was intense and he smiled at her; despite her anxiety Mariana began to smile back, and for a moment they sat looking at one another like mirrors.  Surely joy was still possible, and hope?

Her legs were getting in the sun again as the shade of their tree swung across the sand.  The breeze sighed in the branches overhead and a tika-nika began to chirr in the rocks above them.  The crystal waves swept in and slipped back, soft, rhythmic.

“I’m not saying I’m going to change the galaxy,” Jeron said “but—“

-“but you’re going to change it.”

He laughed, gathering her into his arms again. “That’s the plan, anyway.”

They were kissing, caressing, Mariana’s doubts and fears becoming harder to hold onto in the onrush of pleasure.  The breeze, the waves, the sun; _tika-nika, tika-nika, tika-tika-tika-ni-nee-nee_ ; and her boyfriend holding her, kissing her, his sweet lips on hers, sandy hands stroking her skin... 

_Don’t tear yourself up with worry for a future you can’t control; be happy here, now, you’re on a beautiful beach with a wonderful man who loves you.  This is life, right now; enjoy it._

They broke off from making out, with swollen lips and damp hair full of sand, and once again lay still for a moment, gazing at one another.  The air between them seemed to sing with heat and longing, and the sun had crept across their bodies as the patch of shade moved around and uncovered them.  Everything Mariana saw was gilded and bright. 

Jeron said “If you don’t manage to find a job –“

“I _have_ to –“

“But if you _don’t_.  Mariana, if the attitudes you’ve struggled against all through college are just the same outside and – if it’s another struggle, and you don’t know what to do, where to go –“

He broke off, gazing up at her as she hung over him.  The golden sand in the sunlight was a halo round his dark head. “Mariana, my love –“

“Yes?”

“Marry me?  Come to Fest with me?”

“Oh!” It was the last thing she had expected.  Marry him, yes – _yes!_ – but now? - straight out of college, straight before he got sent off to spend five years on a planet of snow and ice and phrikite refineries? 

But – Jeron – Force knew she loved him, and – “Are you serious?”

“I have never been more serious.  If you find a good job, a good posting, then go and I’ll wait for you.  But if you don’t?  At least consider it?  Marry me, come to Fest, I know it’s doing things the wrong way round but maybe once we were there you could get a job in the mines, surely they’ll want engineers, all mines do, right?  And if not, maybe we could - start a family maybe?”

A family.  Children, with Jeron Andor.  Children and a home. 

Children and a home on Fest.  Cold, ice, mining, refineries, phrikite.

But Jeron.  Love, security, friendship, hope.  A home and a hearth, a family and a place in the universe, a home built of love.  A future together.

She wanted, all her heart wanted, to say yes; but “I need to think about it.”

“Sweet life, yes, of course.  I didn’t mean to push you!  I’m doing this all wrong, I know I am.  You asked me if I want to keep things and I do, I do, Mariana, I want to keep _this_.  You, me; I love you so much and I don’t care what anyone says, if we’re too young, I don’t care, I _know_ – I’ve met the love of my life, you’re her, you’re the one.  You’re amazing.  And you’re brilliant, you’re a better engineer than I‘ll ever be.  If you don’t find a good job – a great job! – then there’s no justice in the galaxy.  But we know there _is_ no justice, so – just - if you don’t find a job – we could do this.  If you want.  Only if you want.”

“And if I find a job?”

“If you find a job it’ll be because you deserve it!”

“But will I lose you?”

“No!  My darling, no.  Not unless you want to.  I’ll wait for you.  I’ll wait if you want and I’ll go away if you want, and I’ll take you with me if you want.  You decide.”

His eyes were so dark.  Jaspers, tiger-eyes; she was struggling to name anything she knew that was as lovely - “You have beautiful eyes” she told him.

Jeron grinned at her non-sequitur. “I do?”

“Yes.  Like jasper, or dark topaz.  Or cassiterite, when it’s polished.”

“Oooh, sounds fancy!  Not cassanterite?  Cassaterite?  Cassianterite?” He was laughing and she bent down, nipped his beautiful bottom lip between her teeth.  For a moment they clung together once more, kissing.  Holding off the end of the day and the holiday a little longer. 

The waves were still lapping by their feet; the breeze came and went, carrying the distant sounds of the resort.  It could have been a hundred miles off for all she cared.  The smell of salt and pine duff was sweet in the warm air.

 _Tika-nika, tika-nika, tika-tika-tika-ni-nee_ sang the bright-voiced insects in the rocks. 

Mariana raised her head, to look down at her lover.  At the man who would go to chilly Fest where his grandparents had been near-slaves, and work there for five years, and wait for her.  Jeron Andor, who she loved.  Time to say it, then, say it aloud.  Let the tika-nikas witness her.  “I love you,” she told him. “Jeron Andor, I love you so much.”

“And I love you.  Mariana Casal, you are my heart.”

“This has been a wonderful holiday.”

“It has.  I’m so glad we came here.  I’m never going to forget this week.”

And she knew.  She had to tell him. “Jeron – yes.  It’s yes.  If I don’t find a good job – ah, but I have to find a good job, surely I will, how can the whole galaxy not have a good job for me and my great degree, I’m a graduate, Jeron, I’m a kriffing graduate! –“ and for a moment they cuddled together and she laughed into his bare tanned throat at the wonder of it all – at the future all spread before them like a magic kingdom in a folktale; at the thought that college was over and had been a success; and the man she loved had just proposed to her – _she was a kriffing graduate and Jeron had proposed to her!_ \- “ _but_ \- if I don’t, then – yes, Jeron, yes, I’ll marry you and come and live in the cold with you.  You’re right, there might be work for me there.  And we could be happy.  We’d be together.  If I’m not changing the galaxy somewhere in a proper job then I’d rather be with you than go home to my parents and just work in a shop or something!  So yes, it’s yes, I’ll marry you!”

“You will?” His dark eyes were so bright with happiness, ah, the hells, she loved him so, so much…

“I will, I really will!  I love you, Jeron.  I want to marry you.  If not now then later; if not here then on Fest.”

“And we’ll make a new world,” he said. “Oh Mariana, I just know it!  You and I, we’ll change the galaxy together…”

“Yes.  Yes, we will.”

In the future, together, in a new world. 


End file.
